112: Ed Lu - The Real Threat of Asteroids
How would you prioritize dangers to humanity’s continued existence? Just on this show, we’ve talked extensively about climate change, food security, even natural disasters like earthquakes. But we’ve ignored one threat that is often talked about in scientific circles - the dangers of asteroids. The earth and moon are both scarred with thousands of asteroid impacts - so minor, some devastating like the impact that is associated with the die off the dinosaurs.
Just a few weeks back, NASA identified a new asteroid 2015TB145 - a 400 meter wide asteroid that flew by the earth - came to within 300Kmiles. From detection to flyby was only a few weeks in this case. While thereare no concerns about this particular asteroid impacting the earth, there aremillions of asteroids that could be on a collision path, and we currently havea limited ability to track them.
This week, I talked with Ed Lu, former astronaut and CEO ofthe b612 foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to launching a satellite to betterdetect these Near Earth objects. We discussed the threat, the economics to getan effective system in place, how long that system would last, and finally ifwe detect an asteroid what we can do about it.
NASA Near Earth Object Database
Science in the News:
A cautionary tale before Black Friday
Nisbett/Wilson Pantyhose Study
Asteroid 2015 TB145